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It's not enough that the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is acclaimed as one of the most charismatic, emotionally generous and technically formidable dance companies in the world.

The company, which opens a two-night stand Tuesday at the Benedum Center, Downtown, must continue to astound people who think they know what to expect, says Judith Jamison, the company's artistic director.

"When you say 'accessible,' sometimes that's translated as, 'Oh yeah, we'll be able to come in there and know what we're giong to do,'" says Jamison, a former Ailey dancer who was a friend, confidant and sometime muse to the late choreographer.

Thus, while the dancers will perform Ailey's masterpiece "Revelations" at the shows, they'll also dip deep into the company's repertory of 180 works. The twin concerts, produced by the Pittsburgh Dance Council and the African American Cultural Center, will include "Treading" by Elisa Monte and "Juba" by Robert Battle. The newest piece, "Love Stories," is a three-section dance choreographed by Battle, hip-hop princeling Rennie Harris and Jamison.

Ailey, who died in 1989, started the first modern dance repertory company, Jamison says. Prior to Ailey, modern dance companies were founded by choreographers as a way of getting their own work shown. Ailey set his own works on his dancers but also encouraged unknown choreographers.

Today, the company repertory includes works by 67 choreographers, including Dwight Rhoden, Ronald K. Brown and Ulysses Dove.

The idiom-melding "Love Stories" quotes Ailey's choreography as well as variations on the Lindy hop, Philly bop and modern dance. The opening section, choreographed by Jamison, alludes to the Ailey company's scrounging, can-do beginnings in cramped, makeshift studios in the late '50s and early '60s.

"My section is the past," Jamison says. "It has to do with being in the studio by yourself in the beginning, not having mirrors. Maybe the space (was) small in the '50s and the '60s, and the practice clothes weren't that great. Nothing was all that great.

"You see a solo dance starting out. There's a constant motif of light. The ballet begins with someone carrying a single light. It's about exploring space."

Any history is strictly non-literal, says Jamison, who was discovered by Agnes de Mille and danced with American Ballet Theatre before joining Ailey's company in 1965.

"I wanted to separate it into past, present and future. I was the past -- I mean in quality, technique and style. The present is hip-hop. The future I wanted to be (choreographed by) Robert, because I think Robert has a strident kind of in-your-face way of moving his modern dance technique around."

All three choreographers use the music of Stevie Wonder. Jamison and Wonder were among five recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., in 1999.

The company recently moved into its new $55 million facility, the Joan Weill Center for Dance in Manhattan. The largest building in the country that is devoted entirely to dance, the eight-story, 77,000-square-foot facility includes 12 studios, a black box theater, costume shop and library.

"The building is really magnificent," Jamison says. "I wish we could be there more often, but we're often out on the road. We are, at the moment, still as not-for-profit as everybody else. We just happen to be on the high end of things at the moment."

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